iPhone 7 can't verify restore / Stuck in DFU

My iPhone 7 began acting sluggish yesterday. Suddenly, the screen went blank and I couldn't get it to respond. I contacted Apple and they said to do the "Volume Down / Sleep button" reboot method. Nothing happened. Then they had me plug into iTunes and try to do a restore.

iTunes told me it was "Verifying iPhone restore" and the iPhone 7 screen came to life! Only problem is, it was stuck that way for the longest time. I waited over night and the progress bar on the iPhone screen never moved (see screenshots)

Sooooo, I went to the Apple store and a genius bar employee looked at it. Went through the same check list I had gone through and then told me he wasn't sure what was wrong and that the hardware might be trashed. He then said I should just buy a new iPhone for $300 (which he conveniently had ready in a box) and move on. Yeah...I can't just drop that much money on the spot.

Anyone have suggestions on where to go from here? I've scoured the Apple forums but can only find posts detailing successful restores, not failed restores that seemingly couldn't be fixed.

I've looked at programs like Dr. Fone to see if I could restore the OS, but i don't want to pay $70 for something that might work.

Thanks!